Sports data benefits

The techie part of me thinks this is so neat:

Strava Metro is a project that uses the same rider and runner data as Heat Maps, but strips out all personal data, starting points and finishing points. This can then be used by departments of transportation, advocacy groups and city planners. The information allows these bodies to get real-world detail on where people actually ride and run, what roads they avoid and a whole host of other detail that would be of great help when planning future bike and pedestrian paths.

With nearly half the rides logged on Strava being commutes to work it’s a highly accurate and informative database that has, until now, never been available or possible to create.

Strava is already working with the US state of Oregon and the cities of Orlando, Glasgow, London and Melbourne, among others, to help the relevant authorities understand and crunch the data they need to help make cycling safer in these areas.

From CyclingTips.com

And in case anyone thinks, it's US only relevance:

Indeed, 95% of Strava activities are now logged outside of the company’s native USA.

Think I'll have to go and try out Strava